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When we learned of the new ticketing policies taking place in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, we couldn’t help but wonder if it’s bound to become a microcosm of the bicycling in the U.S.: relatively un-policed, but for how long?

Prospect Park offers those in Brooklyn with 585 acres of natural land and — more importantly — a popular roadway for cyclists and pedestrians alike. And until about four months ago, says neighborhood news source The Brooklyn Paper, this roadway presented cyclists both hardcore and recreational with a paved place outside of the dangers of New York’s roadways with a place to ride without inhibition. Now, tickets ranging from $50 to $200 are being doled out by park police, stopping bicyclists from running red lights, riding against traffic and even speeding. The neighborhood news source says 188 tickets have been handed out to cyclists in the last four months.

Sven Brunso: late for the train. Heading to the station to catch the last train of the day to Grindelwald, Switzerland.

Unless you’ve been living in a deep, dark cave… You may have noticed that there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each week. We call it the Osprey Round Up… Happy Friday!

Our inboxes have been bursting with photos from Osprey friends, athletes and family. From the Selkirks of British Columbia to Mount Washington in New Hampshire to the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps, we’ve lived vicariously through some of these adventures across the globe. This Friday we thought it was time we put together a quick photo gallery to stoke the winter wanderlust in all of us… enjoy!

The Matterhorn and Zermatt as advertised and better. Photo: Sven Brunso

Kauai, Hawaii. Photo: Beth Rodden

Mount Washington in the distance, New Hampshire. Photo: Majka Burhardt

We didn’t know we’d encounter two bears in a matter of hours, but Greg Fortin and I knew we were in for an adventure when we started pedaling away from Glacier Park’s Avalanche Campground parking lot at 8:20 last Friday night. It was an absurdly late time to head into Glacier’s bear-riddled backcountry, but, as a smiling old man once said to me when he saw me bicycle touring in a rainstorm, “You go when you can.”

We only had 48 hours before backcountry permit officials, concerned we’d interfere with road crews plowing record snow off Going To The Sun Road, insisted we be back. The road crews might have been miserable, we weren’t going to let that magnificent, once in a lifetime June snowpack go to waste. We were going to ski. With tent, sleeping bags, skis, and food for two days in our bike trailers, we set off for the mountains.

Five minutes later an enormous, glistening scat pile appeared in the road. Seconds later came the bear. Neither of us noticed it until the moment we passed it, standing on its hind legs and staring at us intensely not 20 feet to my right.

“Whoah!” we said simultaneously, looking at each other with the universal “holy crap we just saw a bear!” expression of raised eyebrows, open mouths, and bug eyes. We laughed, but I saw bears everywhere after that. Trees, stumps, rocks, everything looked like a lurking bruin in the dimming light. Still, we pedaled higher and higher into the mountains until, just as the day’s last light ebbed from the sky, we reached the trail to Granite Park where we planned to camp for the next two nights.

Stashing the bikes, we strapped skis to our packs and started walking. We’d been fairly jovial while pedaling, but now that it was dark and we were making our way through an eery burned forest, our mood mellowed. Darkness does that. Especially darkness in wild places full of bears when you’re the only humans for many miles around.

Clouds on the horizon promise severe precipitation. I can’t imagine anyone will actually want to load up their bike and go camping this weekend, but my girlfriend, Staj, and I decide to go anyway. It’s been five months since we’ve lived on our bicycles, camping every night and thus monotony of sleeping in a comfortable bed protected from the elements has gotten to us.

Unless you’ve been living in a deep, dark cave… You may have noticed that there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each Friday. Every month, we’ll be choosing a theme that fits with the Osprey lifestyle. Since we just wrapped our “Instead of driving, I…” contest, we’ve decided to pay homage to human-powered transportation for all of March. Welcome to the Osprey Friday Round-Up!

After a great video shoot this week [the photo above gives you a little “behind the scenes” look at what we’re up to… keep your eyes out for the video soon!] we’ve got bikes on the brain. Big time.

The National Bike Summit was hosted this week in Washington, D.C. with bike advocates and industry leaders converging upon the capital. Of course the popular quote of the week goes to Representative Earl Blumenauer, who kicked off things at the summit on Wednesday with his excellent opener:

“How many people are stuck in traffic right now on their way to ride a stationary bike at the gym?”

It’s a good question, and one that maybe elicits a little more contemplation as we look to the future of not only bike policy, but all of the issues that are tied to it, like health and environment.

Unless you’ve been living in a deep, dark cave… You may have noticed that there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each Friday. Every month, we’ll be choosing a theme that fits with the Osprey lifestyle. Since we just wrapped our “Instead of driving, I…” contest, we’ve decided to pay homage to human-powered transportation for all of March. Welcome to the Osprey Friday Round-Up!

Last month, we asked our fans how they they got around — without driving — and we were flooded with awesome responses. So, without further ado, below, we’ve listed out the winners of the “Instead of driving, I…” contest. Congratulations to the winners! Watch out for a cool, new video on the topic coming soon. And to everyone out there who chooses to use their own power to get them from place to place: thank you for leading the way. Let’s keep it up!

With the massive growth of high school cycling through the recent inception of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), we are seeing a huge boost in the amount of junior cyclists across the country. This is super exciting and promising for the sport to grow in a sustainable manner for the future.

But what happens to all these high school cyclists as they head to college? [Insert superhero music] Collegiate Cycling! Because collegiate cycling gets much less media exposure than high school cycling, many do not even know how it work or exists. The idea was founded initially as the National Collegiate Cycling Association in 1985, and is now under the governance of USA Cycling as USA Cycling Collegiate. Where as NICA currently focuses on just mountain biking, due to the benefit of safety and ease of introduction that mountain biking offers to beginner cyclists, collegiate cycling encompasses road, mountain bike, track and cyclocross — essentially all disciplines of bike racing other than BMX racing. This is really cool because all types of cyclists have a spot in the collegiate program.

Unless you’ve been living in a deep, dark cave… You may have noticed that there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each Friday. Every month, we’ll be choosing a theme that fits with the Osprey lifestyle. Since we were so excited for the launch of our bike blog last month, we decided to continue with that theme for all of October. Welcome to the Osprey Friday Round-Up!

With bicycling infrastructure taking its sweet time to make it to American streets, some kids are taking things into their own hands. A group of high school students in Florida wake up early every morning to meet up and bike, as a group, to school.

“When I ride my bike, I feel better throughout the day. Like school is worth going to if I get to ride my bike.”

Some are there because they want to help the environment, others are psyched to be part of a sweet Florida bike posse (my words) and all love to ride their bikes.

“Riding your bike gives you so much freedom. You don’t have to wait for you bus. You don’t have to wait for your parents. It’s just you and your bike. You just pedal the speed you want.”

I found this over on Copenhagenize and all in all, it’s a sweet little video about a group of kids taking action to change their world. We could use a little more of this.

And we agree. We could use A LOT more of this!

So for our final bike-themed Friday Round-Up, we’ve decided to give you a couple more inspiring videos to get you on your bike…

Unless you’ve been living in a deep, dark cave… You may have noticed that there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each Friday. Every month, we’ll be choosing a theme that fits with the Osprey lifestyle. Since we were so excited for the launch of our bike blog last month, we decided to continue with that theme for all of October. Welcome to the Osprey Friday Round-Up!

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Bikes are obviously the hottest way to get around. Why?

1. Because they’re simple. Everyone can learn how to change a tire, or put your chain back on. And if you can do that, you can ride for the rest of your life. In a time of incredible mass consumption, finding beauty in the simplicity of things like biking is crucial.

2. Riding a bike makes you hotter. Think about it. A bike runs on your energy, and that’s it. No nasty fossil fuels to muck up our climate. So, you can feel good about doing your part to make the world a better place. And the only thing you’ve got to worry about is having more muscular gams to show off on your ride to work.

So, while we’ve established that bikes are the world’s most fun and accessible way to get around. ARTCRANK thinks thatposters are the world’s most fun and accessible art form. And we’d have to agree. The best part about ARTCRANK is that they bring these two awesome things together.

Every ARTCRANK show features posters created by local artists from the host city. Admission is always free, and posters are priced to let everybody take home at least one.

What’s not to like about that?! If you live in one of the above cities, make sure to check out the show. If not, peruse some of the posters online, throw your own bike poster party and make your own!

On the topic of making the world a better place, this Sunday is 10/10/10 — a day when people across the globe have decided to celebrate our climate solutions and send a message to our politicians: “We’re getting to work — what about you?” So whether you decide to get your hands dirty restoring streamside habitat, or teaching people in your community how to change a flat tire on their bike, just make sure you’re doing something.

Check out the list of events on 350.org for a list of events in your region and hop to it!

The Osprey Brand Team, a group of 10 ambassadors reporting from the field at consumer outdoor events across the country as well as reporting on adventures in their own neck of the woods, checks in with bike racer and brand team member, James Whitesides. Here James describes his recent 200+ mile ride from Seattle to Portland – the pain cave runs deep in this dude! Find out what it feels like before/during/after a ride of this magnitude…

After the 24hr race I had a huge motivation gap that really threatened to extend deep into the fall. So I decided to change the route everything was taking by riding to Portland on the 4th of July.

So Friday night saw me frantically loading the Talon 11 up with some clothes (not enough for a cold Monday), tools and tubes (I never needed them), and lots of supplements. I woke to an early alarm on Saturday and somehow managed to dress, drink a cup of coffee, pump up my tires, and double check my preparations well before my departure alarm went off. Then I started the long haul south. Two weeks before I had mapped out the entire 206.12 mile route on my computer from my house to my sisters with a couple of deviations from the normal “flat” course the STP takes. With a punch of my Garmin’s button I was rolling.

Riding road you know takes a lot of fun out of a ride and the first twenty-five miles were dull. They would have been really dull except that I didn’t have to stop once while I was still riding in familiar territory. Some fluke of light timing and the lack of any cars on the road made it really easy to cruise through the twilight into dawn and then full sun. The north flanks of Mount Rainier were bright in the south by the time I reached mile 40 and the day was already starting to warm up. I cruised through a couple of little towns that I would have had no other reason to be in except that they were on my route and made the little climb out of Puyallup and started to get hungry. I stopped in Yelm and grabbed an amazingly quick breakfast of buckwheat pancakes and bacon (mmm…bacon) that would keep me filled for a long time. The terrain got a little more interesting when entered rolling roads in dry pine forests just as I ticked through 70 miles.

Oddly enough, mile 80 to mile 90 is a little fuzzy. I’m pretty sure I hit the north end of Centralia and rode through town but I’m not sure. I do remember the 100 mile mark on Centralia Alpha Rd. Perfect pavement in the middle of nowhere with a great two and a half mile climb and large trees. This road took me up to the last views I would get of Rainier and led me to the Jackson Highway and straight into the teeth of the dark place that is bonking. Right as the ride was entering some of the best roads I had a pretty serious conversation about where the nearest highway exit was. I could call here, still have the longest ride of my year under my belt (112 miles), and be showered and drinking beer by 2:30 pm. But I decided that I would tap into my Hammer Perpetum and see what happened. Half a bottle and a little stretching and wouldn’t you know it, I was fine. Not fine as in perfectly rested, but I was going to keep on going. I rode gingerly at first but as I crossed I-5 at the 120 mile mark I was back to full speed.

A quick stop for essential travel items (water, pizza pockets, and snickers bars) and broke up the mental monotony with a view of how everyone else was traveling. I was actually feeling O.K. I was going as fast as I had gone at eight in the morning and there were no real signs that my legs couldn’t make it all the way. Unfortunately this was when I had to begin the pep-talk to the rest of the body.

I had to convince my arms and wrists that the three positions I had available were fine, my skin that putting more lotion on wasn’t the answer, and the undercarriage need special convincing that the saddle was just fine. I followed the twists of the Cowlitz river south in increasingly unbearable heat and crossed the Columbia just as I started to really feel how warm it was. However, the bridge into Oregon meant I only had to make it another 48 miles.

My mantra became focused on doing the math of averages. “Let’s see, if I do 15 miles an hour I get there in two and a half, if I do 16 then I get there in two and change…” on and on it went. I had been dreaming about the tailwind down the Columbia all day and I got it just as I crossed the 30 to go mark.
Ten miles later, things began to unravel. First and foremost I couldn’t stay in one position for more than twenty seconds. My brain was on overdrive and I could feel everything in my body. Then my sister called and I knew that it was over: “Hey, do you want me to come pick you up?”….”Uh, yeah”…”Where are you”…”Uh, I’m the only guy riding south in the middle of the afternoon on Hwy. 30, I think you’ll find me” (close approximation). I was done with the ride fifteen miles from Portland.

As I dug through my pack a half an hour later to get dressed I realized that I didn’t feel all that bad. I had managed to ride from Seattle to just short of Portland by myself carrying all my gear! I hadn’t noticed my little pack unless I pulled it up to high on my back and I hadn’t had a single flat or mechanical. I could have done the ride with way less on my back. I’m glad I had all the extra stuff and the space, but next time I think I will try and get it into 11 liters and maybe I’ll pack all the right stuff. I don’t think I can ride that route again, but it has me thinking that I might tackle some other big rides in the near future. Thanks for reading!